Welcome back!

Here’s your must-read news this morning:


  • Iran war market fears fizzle

  • Anthropic CEO’s anti-Trump memo

  • James Talarico's insanely woke tweets


I’ve got all the most important stories for you, so let’s dive in.

— Josh

MARKETS

iStock/MCCAIG

Wall Street Panickers Lose Again as Iran War Fears Fizzle

Markets Roundup

🏦 ECONOMY

  • Editor’s Pick: Why U.S.-Iran War Won’t Stop Kevin Warsh from Cutting Rates (CNBC)

  • China’s leaders set the economy’s growth target to below 5% for the first time since 1991. (NYT)

  • U.S. private sector added 63,000 jobs in February 2026, beating expectations. (INV)

  • U.S. services sector surged to ISM PMI of 56.1 in February 2026, the fastest expansion since July 2022. (BBG)

📈 HOT STOCK PICKS

  • Editor’s Pick: Top Value Investor—Who Nailed 2026's Market Rotation—Names His 3 Favorite Stocks (BI)

  • The Motley Fool recommended three high-risk, high-reward AI-focused growth stocks for 2026. (MF)

  • Insider Monkey ranked the 10 best affordable energy stocks to buy this week. (IM)

  • Zacks spotlighted the best cheap stocks to buy under $10 for March. (ZIR)

🏢 INDUSTRY

  • Editor’s Pick: Somebody Stole 378,000 Cans of Tucker Carlson’s Nicotine Pouches (TMZ)

  • New emails reveal Jeffrey Epstein cultivated a closer relationship with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman than previously admitted. (BBG)

  • McDonald’s CEO’s tiny bite of the new Big Arch went viral, triggering a roast war after Burger King’s president fired back with a huge bite of a Whopper. (NBC)

  • Ivana Trump's opulent Manhattan townhouse sold after a massive price cut. (FBN)

  • Morgan Stanley is laying off approximately 2,500 employees across all divisions. (WSJ)

🛢️ ENERGY & COMMODITIES

  • Editor’s Pick: The Dark Horse That Could Deliver the World's First Fusion Reactor (OP)

  • Iran's Revolutionary Guards claim they struck a U.S. oil tanker in the northern Gulf. (RTS)

  • Average U.S. retail diesel prices surpassed $4 a gallon for the first time in nearly two years. (INV)

  • Interior Secretary Doug Burgum met with Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez in Caracas to discuss a rare earth minerals partnership. (AP)

  • Newsom's cap-and-trade allowance—a "climate tax hike"—will raise gas prices, shutter refineries, export jobs, and increase foreign oil imports. (WSJ)

🌕 CRYPTO

  • Editor’s Pick: Why Peter Thiel Walked Away from Ether Treasury Bet (CT)

  • Crypto infrastructure firm Zero Hash applied to the OCC for a national trust bank charter. (TB)

  • The SEC submitted guidance to the White House outlining how securities laws could be applied to crypto. (BKL)

  • Ether, Solana, and XRP surged amid a broad crypto rally, with Bitcoin breaking $72,000. (CD)

TECH

Dwarkesh Patel/YouTube

Leaked Memo Exposes Anthropic CEO's Trump Derangement Syndrome

Tech Roundup

🧠 AI

  • Editor’s Pick: How Palantir Helps 20 U.S. Troops do the Work of 2,000 in Iran War (TMS)

  • OpenAI reached $25 billion in annualized revenue by end of February 2026. (TI)

  • Grammarly launched “Expert Review,” an AI tool simulating feedback from famous writers who are living and dead. (WIR)

  • Google is rolling out Canvas in AI mode to all U.S. users, enabling drafting documents, coding, and building interactive tools directly in Search. (VER)

🤖 ROBOTS

  • Editor’s Pick: Robots Just Discovered the Perfect Place to Build Human Bases on Mars (TDG)

  • MSC Cruises will welcome passengers with humanoid robots and robotic dogs on select ships. (MIR)

  • Scientists developed a method to translate music into synchronized light and motion using robots. (RAN)

  • Xiaomi's humanoid robots have begun an "internship" at the EV plant, autonomously performing tasks to help build vehicles. (CD)

💰 VENTURE CAPITAL

  • Editor’s Pick: Andreessen Horowitz Gears Up to Raise Massive New Crypto Fund (FOR)

  • Silverflow, a cloud-native card payment processing service with a single API to card networks, raised a $40 million Series B led by Picus Capital. (TEU)

  • Unleash, a platform for managing risks in AI-accelerated software development, raised $35 million in Series B funding led by One Peak. (SA)

  • Data management startup Validio raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Plural. (AX)

FREEDOM

James Talarico/YouTube

Backlash Erupts over James Talarico's Insanely Woke Tweets

Freedom Roundup

🏛️ POLICY & CULTURE

  • Editor’s Pick: Meet the Man Making Government Beautiful Again (TFP)

  • The U.S. federal government cut over 300,000 jobs in Trump's first year back in power. (RTS)

  • Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed in a new deposition that he resisted censoring platforms. (ABC)

That's a wrap! You're officially caught up on all things tech, markets and freedom.

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